Italian Art Informel Painting Black, Grey, Red, Blue By Danilo Picchiotti, 1987

Fantastic large abstract informal painting with a poectic note in wonderful colors signed Danilo Picchiotti 1987.
The original artist frame in red allows the artistic design to run into the frame or integrates the frame into the artwork


Childhood and the French period
Danilo Picchiotti was born in 1933. His childhood and youth are characterized by the restless search of an artistic expression for his own sensibility and perception, as well as his very strong sense of existence. This would eventually lead him to join an art club known as “I Pennelacci” (the Paintbrushes) in his hometown in Rome at the early age of 18. He then starts devoting himself exclusively and passionately to reading and painting.

He moves to Paris in 1952. In Paris he explores the stimulating and innovativeenvironmentsrepresented by the local versions of Surrealism of the period. From that moment onwards, he allows his own existence to be overwhelmed by his art until he becomes his art’s main subject, firmly convinced that self-consciousness and stylistic research are closely linked. This immense labour will find the truest expression of his artistic and existential sensibility in Surrealism.

From his early career to action painting.
During the early 1970s, the artistic environment in Rome and his successful participation to several collective art exhibitions, especially with the “Pennellacci” club, leads him to his public debut and paves the way to a very important and busy period.

Later on, after enormous intellectual labour, he approaches the gestural informal painting, also known as “Action Painting”. This art movement was mostly developed in the United States, and is also called Abstract Expressionism. The most celebrated artist of this movement is Jackson Pollock.

In 1986 Danilo Picchiotti holds a number of exhibitions of works that are strongly influenced by this art movement (action painting).



The latest works of the artist.
In Europe, the French painter Jean Fautrier begins incorporating his paintings with plastic materials that burst out of the canvas, overcoming the boundary between two-dimensional images and plastic forms. This type of painting will be called “Matter Painting”; other painters will join this movement including Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tápies and the Italian Alberto Burri.

While some artists hide into the sign, others, including Picchiotti, emphasises the matter that identifies the work itself, by choosing any kind of material such as wood, fabric, glass, wall or even colour, which are arranged on the canvas, assuming their own physicality and are transformed, layer by layer, by using fire, water and other elements.

Beginning from 2000, after several years of artistic inactivity due to health problems, Danilo Picchiotti, today more culturally open-minded than ever, returns to painting with determination, strength and energy giving birth to his new “GESTURAL MATTER” period.


Major exhibitions and awards:
a selection
1965
First Prize of the “Gatta d’oro” Award – Rome
First Prize of the “Trevignano 1965” Award - Trevignano
Art Exhibition at "Galleria Brandi" - Rome
Art Exhibition at “Circolo Artistico” via Margutta – Rome
Art Exhibition at “La Tozzella” Gallery – Avezzano
First Prize of the “Riccio d’oro” Award, prize of Medaglia d’oro Award
1966
Art Exhibition at "La Saletta" Gallery- Frosinone
Theatre and Painting exhibition at the "Piccolo Teatro" - Rome
Figurative Art Exhibition at the "Piccolo Teatro" - Rome
18th Art Trade Show via Margutta – Rome
International painting exhibition - Manziana
1967
International painting exhibition - Bracciano
1968
Exhibition at Geswind Villa at Meung sur Loire - France
1969
Art exhibition at the Hotel de Bordeaux Tours - France
1970
Art Exhibition at "Anfora" gallery - Paris
Art Exhibition at "Hervè" gallery - Paris
1972
Art Exhibition at "Pencier" gallery - Paris
Art Exhibition at "Bernier" gallery - Paris
1974
2nd prize of “IV edizione Cavalletto d'oro" Award - Florence
1975
Art Exhibition at "Galleria Facchetti” -
Art Exhibition at "Daber" gallery - Paris
1977
Art Exibition at "Galerie Wolfang Gurlitt" - Munich
1978
Art Exhibition at "Galerie Ernest Fuchs" - Vienna
1979
Art Exhibition at "Galerie Lienhard" – Zurich
1985
Art exhibition at "Villa Parri" – Bardeggiano, Colle Val d'Elsa (Siena)
Read the exhibition brochure (pdf, in italian)
1986
Art Exhibition in Prato (PO)
Read the review from the Italian daily “La Nazione” (pdf, in italian)
Art Exhibition in Eggi
Art Exhibition in Foggia
Art Exhibition in Pontedera
Art Exhibition in Pisa
Art Exhibition in Porto Ercole (Monte Argentario)
Art Exhibition in Chianciano Terme
1989
Art Exhibition in Arezzo at "Logge Vasari"
Read the exhibition brochure (pdf, in iItalian)
Picchiotti’s works from the Gestural Matter period 2006
Art Exhibition in Bologna.